Thursday, October 31, 2019

Connect to the Genealogy Community!


Genealogy can often feel like a solo job. We venture out to local libraries, archives, and cemeteries. We go off to do some online research for a few hours. We study our families and conduct our research when we can find the time, but so often it is done alone.

And that, y'all, is where conferences and the online genealogy community come in!

Our community is a dynamic one, too. Whether you're on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram (or all three, right?!) you can connect with writers, bloggers, speakers, professional genealogists and amateur family historians alike.

Following #genealogy or #familyhistory can keep us connected to others, and if you think about it...that's why most of us study our families to begin with. To feel - or to truly be - connected to them. To discover the story of you.

As I've followed my friends and colleagues online, I can't help but be a little jealous of something I wasn't able to attend recently. This past week was RootsTech London, the first time RootsTech went to Europe. I've only been to London once, and that was just for a few hours during a long layover. So to go to a genealogy conference in the land where nearly all of my ancestors come from sounds so much fun! And from photos I saw, it looked like a really great conference!

Even though I missed out on RootsTech London, guess what's coming up soon!? Like 117 days, soon. RootsTech 2020 in Salt Lake City, Utah!!

I've been counting down the days for many months, but as we get closer to 2020, I'm getting that much more excited. It's a chance to see friends, to make new ones, and to make sure that the fire of excitement for family history is rekindled and made strong again. During the year, we get busy and our focus on our individual research can often fall by the wayside in light of immediate priorities. But after attending a conference, we're given new ideas, given fresh vision to see the holes in our research, and the new ways we might be able to approach our brick walls.

I hope you'll join me this year at RootsTech from February 26-29, 2020. It's only $189 for 4 days of amazing content. Find your flight now, book an Airbnb, and you'll save a lot of money...and make a great trip to bolster your genealogy research. Trust me, it's the third RootsTech I'm making in a row! You won't regret it!

*****

My ancestors - and your ancestors - deserve the best researcher, the most passionate story-teller, and the dignity of being remembered. So let's keep encountering our ancestors through family history and remembering the past made present today!

Sunday, October 20, 2019

Greek Genealogy Conference in Virginia Beach


Each community has its own unique genealogical challenges. But genealogists love challenges, don't we? There seems to be something ingrained in the genealogist that makes us a glutton for punishment! Genealogy gold always seems to show up at 12:30am, for example. It's just one of those things!

The Greek community has various challenges relating to access to records, to their relatively small DNA sample database, and diverse ethnicity estimates. Over the years - in my time working with the Greek Orthodox Church - I've had the pleasure of researching several Greek families and have had first-hand experience maneuvering U.S. records relating to Greek families and the challenges of Greek naming conventions.

I have wanted to do a genealogy project to serve the Greek community in my area, to rouse some excitement about family history, and to inspire them to dig deeper into their family roots. Enter the lovely Carol Kostakos Petranek of the blog Spartan Roots. Together we planned a Greek Genealogy Conference here in Virginia Beach on Saturday, October 19, 2019. Carol was even able to bring in a researcher named Matt Ellsworth to share his expertise in Cypriot research.

Over the course of the day, we had 30 participants from as close as Virginia Beach and Norfolk, to as far away as Michigan, and even Ottawa, Canada! There was a beautiful moment where one of our parishioners from Constantinople - modern-day Istanbul, Turkey - was able to translate Turkish documents written in Greek script! These are the sort of things that can only happen through collaboration! This is the beauty of conferences and the hospitality that comes from Greek filotimo!

Despina translated several documents for Denise from Michigan

Knowing that not everyone was able to attend in person, we made all of our talks available through Facebook Live on our St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church Facebook page. These talks will be available for you to view for one week, free of charge, through Sunday, October 27, 2019.

Below is the full schedule from our Greek Genealogy Conference along with the links to the Facebook Live videos from each of the talks. I hope you will take the time to watch or re-watch these videos in the week that they'll be available!

Please note that unfortunately some of the videos did not share properly. Matt Ellsworth's presentation stopped after only a minute or two, and two others (Carol's talk on Greek Civil Records, and mine on U.S. Church Records) shared to Facebook Live only as audio. The slides do not change on the versions shared through Facebook Live. Oh the joys of technology!

Virginia Beach Greek Genealogy Conference

We had to take a selfie with our participants!

Presenters: Sam Williams, Carol Kostakos Petranek, Matt Ellsworth

Introduction to the Conference

Why Orthodox Christians Should Do Their Genealogy - Sam

Greek Genealogy Toolbox & Making connections: Internet resources - Carol

Using U. S. Records to Prepare for Research in Greece – Carol

Using DNA in Greek Genealogy – Sam

Research in Cyprus – Matt Ellsworth (Zoom meeting)
- Unfortunately, Matt's presentation did not properly share to Facebook Live.

Greek Civil Records in Archives and Town Halls - Carol
- The presentation audio is all present, but the slides do not change on Facebook Live.

Orthodox Church Records in Greece - Carol

Orthodox Church Records in the U.S. – Sam
- The presentation audio is present, but as with the Civil Records presentation, the slides do not move in the Facebook Live video.
- If you would like to view the notes from this presentation, please contact me at orthodoxgenealogist@gmail.com and I can send you a PDF of them!

*****

We hope that all of the participants left feeling filled with not only new information on records available, but also with the hope that Greek genealogy - though challenging - is not impossible for their families! It was a blessed day!

If you have any questions regarding the content, I'd love to hear from you!

My ancestors - and your ancestors - deserve the best researcher, the most passionate story-teller, and the dignity of being remembered. So let's keep encountering our ancestors through family history and remembering the past made present today!

Monday, October 14, 2019

Virtual Genealogical Association Conference


There's a saying attributed to Albert Einstein that goes, “The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know.” The more we dive into any particular subject, the more we realize how much there is still yet to discover and understand.

When it comes to genealogy, you might think there's a finite amount of information on any one person that you can find. You collect their birth, marriage, and death dates. What more is there to know!? Well, if you think your life could be condensed into three dates, then keep it that concise. But if you recognize that your ancestors' lives were as beautifully complex as your own, then you will need to find all of the possible records that will flesh out and paint the various scenes from their lives.

But how do we find those many, varied, records? How do we understand the different record sets, the laws that made them, and the changing borders where our ancestors lived? How do we fully utilize our DNA results to better understand our ancestors? How do we use oral history, photographs, and modern technology to discover our ancestors and involve the next generation in family history?

Wouldn't it be awesome if there were an online conference where you could learn all of those things? It can be hard to commit to a conference in another state with a limited budget. The only thing that would make an online conference even better...is if you could watch the sessions for up to six months afterwards. We all get busy, after all!

Guess what!? That conference exists and will be this November, from Friday 1 November through Sunday 3 November! And, if you register, you'll have access through 3 May 2020!!

Learn more about 2019 Virtual Genealogical Association Conference, including the list of speakers and their sessions here.

If you're a member of Virtual Genealogical Association, the cost is $59 and if you're not yet a member of VGA, it's only $79! For THREE whole days of content!!

You need to register by this Friday, 18 October! If you'd like to enter for a chance to win a FREE pass to this amazing conference, click here!! I will notify the winner by this Thursday, 17 October.

Don't forget to enter my giveaway, and then register by this Friday!! I hope to "see" you at VGA 2019!

My ancestors - and your ancestors - deserve the best researcher, the most passionate story-teller, and the dignity of being remembered. So let's keep encountering our ancestors through family history and remembering the past made present today!

Monday, October 7, 2019

Nurturing a Critical Eye


Our brains so often can play tricks on us. We're so busy multi-tasking all the time that we don't always see what's right in front of us. We're on auto-pilot, just like when we're driving a familiar road and seem to just show up at our destination. 

Take a look at the image above. How many of you noticed that "the" was repeated twice each time? Did you notice that "inform" was spelled as "informm?" This is just one example of how easy it is for our eyes to see what our brain wants to see.

When it comes to our genealogy work, and looking at the records that will unlock our family history, we need to develop and nurture a critical eye to see what is before us. If we only see what we want to see, we're going to make assumptions that may lead us down the wrong path. And in genealogy, the wrong path may mean the wrong family.

Let's look at four steps you can take to nurture a critical eye in your genealogy research. We'll look at examples from my research on John Stratton of Powhatan County, Virginia. This John is the father of David Stratton - the common ancestor from my 2019 Family Reunion.

1. Make a timeline

Our first step at nurturing a critical eye is to make a timeline. Why should you make a timeline? Doesn't Ancestry already make a timeline for you, you ask?!

We need to know everything we know about a particular person we are researching. How do we know that they are the child of their parents? How do we know they aren't being confused for a first cousin of the same name? By making a timeline, we can see where all of our documents have been found and visibly keep track of what we know - and do NOT know - about our person in question.

A few months ago, I decided to make a timeline for John Stratton of Powhatan County, Virginia. It's a working document - I add to it as I find more sources. I use Microsoft Word and organize each bit of information by year - day - month. I label each event, include bullets of information underneath, and I make a footnote with the proper citation for each event. The great thing about timelines is that they can help us to work through the first three steps of the Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS). We see whether our research is thorough and reasonably exhaustive, we are able to keep complete and accurate source citations, and we can begin to analyze and correlate what we have found.

This has already borne fruit for my research. In finding John over the years, I have also been able to see how he fits into a family unit within the county. I can see all the various documents I have that include him and his family from deed books, order books, land and personal property taxes. I can see who his neighbors were and who he interacted with most in the county. As I look at my timeline, I am naturally developing and nurturing a critical eye because now I can ask myself, "What do I know and what do I not know?"

2. Resolve conflicting evidence

After we have begun to nurture our critical eye with a timeline, we'll see possible conflicting pieces of evidence. What are we going to do with that bit of evidence? Ignore it?...or will we work to resolve that conflict? It's no accident that the fourth step of the GPS is the resolution of conflicting evidence. 

In my research with John Stratton of Powhatan County, I wanted to know where exactly he lived at all times. With changing county borders, this can be a challenge, but it was vital to verify that all of the records I had for John Stratton were actually his records. In my research, I have been focusing on the research question, "Who is my John Stratton's father?"  

According to A Book of Strattons, two volumes published by Harriet Russell Stratton in 1908 and 1918, my John Stratton was the son of Thomas Stratton. But there was also a John Stratton, son of William Stratton. Since Thomas and William were brothers living in neighboring counties, how can I be sure that I wasn't confusing these two first cousins?

What I knew for certain - from my timeline - was that my John Stratton lived in what is now Powhatan County until moving to Cumberland County in 1791 where he wrote his will in 1805 and passed away by 1807.

There was only one problem, a piece of conflicting evidence that shows a John Stratton being a resident of Cumberland County in 1781. Was there a third John Stratton? How can I resolve this conflicting evidence?

3. Double check your sources

Our third step in nurturing a critical eye in genealogy is to double check our sources. Are we using an original document or is it a transcription? Could the name have been transcribed incorrectly?

What does my source say and what does it come from? First, my information comes from a transcription in a book, the second volume of The Ligon Family and Connections by William D. Ligon. In this book, on page 627, there is the text of a petition written on 16 November 1781 from the "Barracks near Cumberland Co. Ct. House." Among the signers are John Stratton and William Stratton. 

Before I went to double check my sources, I had a few hypotheses about this 1781 conundrum. My first was that perhaps these were troops from Powhatan that were travelling to Cumberland where they wrote this petition. That idea was squashed when I re-read the petition that says that the subscribers were "inhabitants of this county." Next idea? Well, it's a transcription, so I figured maybe "Stratton" was misread from "Shelton" or "Skelton" - two surnames I have seen in Cumberland County records. I knew I wouldn't know for sure until I double checked my source.

Thankfully, this book cited their source as, "Calendar of State Papers, Vol. 2, p. 604." I recently took a trip to the Library of Virginia where I found this book and voila, presto, eureka, I found something!


Do you see it? Instead of "Barracks near Cumberland Co. Ct. House," as The Ligon Family and Connections had transcribed the Calendar of State Papers, this reads, "Barracks near Cumberland O. Ct. House." Well - you might assume - this is a transcription too...so maybe William D. Ligon was correcting an error? So in double checking my source - Calendar of State Papers - I decided to check the pages before page 604 in case another document was also from the same location.

The previous document begins on page 602. Here's its heading:


This letter was written on the same day, 16 November 1781, and it's noted as being from "Cumberland Old C. H." So what's the big deal? Cumberland Old Court House must be in Cumberland County, right?

4. Analysis: What does it all mean?

We've worked with a timeline, we have found conflicting evidence, and we've double checked our sources. But what does it all mean? We need to analyze what we've found.

After looking at the Calendar of State Papers, I found that John Stratton signed a petition not at Cumberland County Court House, but at Cumberland Old Court House. Where's the Old Court House?

First, a bit of background. Powhatan County was formed in 1777 from the eastern portion of Cumberland County. Cumberland had previously been created in 1749 from the southern portion of Goochland County. So from 1749-1777, Powhatan was a part of Cumberland. And wouldn't you know it, we have a building called "Old Cumberland Courthouse" in Powhatan County?

Mosby Tavern, also called Old Cumberland Courthouse, or the Littleberry Mosby House, is a National Register of Historic Places building in Powhatan County. As the name might imply, it was the home of Littleberry Mosby and was used as the courthouse for Cumberland County while Powhatan was part of Cumberland, as well as being used as a jail, tavern, and family home. 

As I look back at the source in the Calendar of State Papers, I see that the first signature is "L. Mosby" and there is also a "Litty. Mosby Jnr." that signed. And now that the scales had fallen from my uncritical eyes, I could then see several other familiar things. Nearly all of the names I recognized as neighbors of John Stratton - not in Cumberland - in Powhatan County! How did I know they were his neighbors? Because I included all neighbors' names that were mentioned in land deeds, processionings, and those mentioned as witnessing events with John Stratton. And where did I write these details? In my timeline!

*****

We all need to nurture a critical eye when it comes to genealogical research. Otherwise, we're going to be reading one thing and recording another. We'll be assuming we know what we're looking at when we're really just confusing ourselves and our future readers. We might even be researching the wrong tree.

We can nurture a critical eye in our research by beginning a timeline - do it today, y'all! - and by working to resolve conflicts we see in our timeline. We need to double check our sources and then spend time in analysis to be clear of what we have found. And next thing you know, you'll be doing better research and working much closer to following the Genealogical Proof Standard in the process!

When I made this discovery recently that John Stratton was NOT a resident of Cumberland in 1781 - but had instead signed a petition in Powhatan County at the Old courthouse - I did a little dance right there in the Library of Virginia! And, as I feel I must do, I shared my joy with the librarian. We all need to share our success stories!

How are you nurturing a critical eye in your genealogical research? Are you using a timeline? What types of sources are you relying on that might be leading you astray?

This post was inspired by the week 19 prompt "Nurture" of the year-long series that I'm participating in with Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.

My ancestors - and your ancestors - deserve the best researcher, the most passionate story-teller, and the dignity of being remembered. So let's keep encountering our ancestors through family history and remembering the past made present today!

Wednesday, October 2, 2019

Register for RootsTech 2020!


Guess what today is, y'all!?

It's 146 days until RootsTech 2020 in Salt Lake City, Utah!

RootsTech is by far the largest genealogy event around; part conference, part family reunion, part family history mall, part concert. But 100% fun and entirely worth the trip!

As we get closer and closer to RootsTech (February 26-29, 2020) I'll be sharing blog posts about the conference, and what you can expect from speakers. And there's something more...

You have the chance of winning a free conference pass from me! You'll have to check by regularly to my blog and my Facebook page to find out how you can win your pass ($299 value).

I get to give away a free pass as part of my roll as a RootsTech 2020 Ambassador - I'm part of the media group that will be at the conference: blogging, tweeting, and posting on Instagram.

In the meantime, you can check out these links to learn more about RootsTech 2020:

- Click here to register by October 11th for the early bird price of $169!

- If you've already been to RootsTech, click here to discover what's new this year!

- Not sure what you'll learn? Find out all about class sessions and speakers here!

- But if that's not enough, discover 10 reasons why you should come to RootsTech!

Stay posted for more news on RootsTech 2020!

My ancestors - and your ancestors - deserve the best researcher, the most passionate story-teller, and the dignity of being remembered. So let's keep encountering our ancestors through family history and remembering the past made present today!

Let's Connect at NGS 2022!

The National Genealogical Society Family History Conference is back in person this year! And y'all I am so ready to meet face-to-face!...